Rack-mounted communications and information technology equipment is widely used in today's society. This equipment consumes electrical power and generates heat. Heat produced by the rack-mounted equipment can have adverse effects on the performance, reliability and useful life of the equipment components. Thus, cooling systems are used to cool the equipment.
To help guard against malfunction in equipment due to power failure, uninterruptible power supplies (UPSs) are often used to provide backup power in case of a power outage. UPSs are commonly used on computing equipment to guard against data being lost due to a power outage before the data are saved. UPSs used with computing equipment also help to guard against a loss in service by providers of information over the Internet, such as by servers, e.g., hosting web pages.
Cooling of communications and information technology equipment is desirable during main power failure, and while the equipment operates on a UPS and continues to generate heat.